Imperial Snipe

Gallinago imperialis

Near Threatened · IUCN Red List

NTNear ThreatenedInvertebratesForestPlatform nestMedium · 164 g

What the Imperial Snipe sounds like

Sonogram of the Imperial Snipe: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song, aerial song with swoop · Zamora-Chinchipe: Reserva Tapichalaca páramo, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Imperial Snipe: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song, aerial song · Zamora-Chinchipe: Reserva Tapichalaca páramo, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto
Sonogram of the Imperial Snipe: time runs left to right, pitch bottom to top, and the brighter the mark the louder the sound.
Recorded by Niels Krabbe · Song, aerial song · Zamora-Chinchipe: Reserva Tapichalaca páramo, Ecuador · CC BY-SA 4.0 · via xeno-canto

ID tip

This 29–31 cm (11–12 in) long snipe has a stocky body and relatively short legs for a wader. Its adult plumage is dark rufous brown except for the lower belly and undertail, which are white with heavy brown barring. The grey bill is long, straight and fairly robust, and the legs and feet are grey. The sexes are similar. The juvenile plumage is unknown, but in most snipe species, young birds differ from adults only in showing pale fringes on the wing coverts.

Text from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

When to see the Imperial Snipe

One bar for each month. Filled bars are the 9 months with records; pale bars are months with none. The wide bar is December, the month with the most records.

Where to see the Imperial Snipe

Regular range

The map shades 2 countries with regular records. Everything unshaded has no records. Countries are listed below the map.

About the Imperial Snipe

The imperial snipe is a small stocky wader which breeds in the Andes. For a century it was known only from two specimens collected near Bogotá, Colombia, and was presumed extinct, but it was rediscovered in Peru in 1967 and Ecuador in 1988. It is not known if it is migratory.

Text adapted from Wikipedia, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.

Easily confused with

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